It’s one of the simpler, but tastiest European cuisines, with much-prized produce to match – discover the wonderful world of Welsh food in our guide below.
If you’re planning to visit Wales then trying some Welsh food along the way is an essential part of the experience. We’ve compiled a list of 18 of the best Welsh foods to try, from starters including Welsh rarebit to mains like lamb cawl and tasty sweet treats such as Welsh cakes.
Our article also includes a selection of the best Welsh produce, some of which you can source from outside Wales.
So read on and mwynhewch eich bwyd – enjoy your food – wherever you may venture in Wales.
Welsh Food – An Introduction
Traditional Welsh cuisine is based almost entirely around home-grown and home-reared produce
You normally need to visit Wales to try almost all the Welsh foods we describe in our article, with the occasional exception
You’re far more likely to find Welsh produce outside Wales – particularly Welsh lamb and Welsh cheeses – than Welsh dishes on a menu outside Wales
Several of the Welsh meals we describe have similar ingredients, including cheese, leeks and lamb
Most Welsh cooking recipes date from the last 200 years or so
If you want to try making the food of Wales at home, it’s possible over much of the world – I often made traditional Welsh cakes and Welsh pancakes when we lived in Australia, and just succeeded in making a Welsh rarebit (with some Czech ingredients) in Prague
Here is the best Welsh food to try in Wales
Welsh Food – Famous Welsh Dishes
1. Welsh Rarebit
Welsh Rarebit – a rich cheese-based sauce on toast – is one of the most famous traditional Welsh foods. It’s a classic Welsh dish, often referred to as ‘cheese on toast’, but this lazy description doesn’t begin to do it justice.
The sauce for Welsh rarebit should consist of cheese (Cheddar or Caerphilly work very well), butter, flour, beer and varying amounts of Worcester sauce and mustard to suit your taste. It is then served on toasted bread (the thicker and crustier the better). A small green side salad with halved cherry tomatoes and a dash of balsamic vinegar rounds it off perfectly.
Welsh rarebit is possibly the only Welsh meal I’ve ever seen served outside the UK. While living in Paris in the early ‘90s I was blown away to see it on the menu at the famous Parisian restaurant, La Coupole, and around a decade later I noticed they were serving ‘le Welsh’ again.
2. Welsh Cakes
The Welsh cake is the culinary coupling of a pancake and fruit biscuit, and one of the most famous Welsh foods of all.
Welsh cakes – cacennau Cymreig or picau ar y maen in Welsh – are round, flat fruit cakes cooked on a hot griddle (planc) or stone (maen). They are deliciously addictive, especially when fresh and warm off the griddle.
Making Welsh cakes at home is relatively easy – we’ve been able to find most ingredients living in continental Europe and Australia. I normally add a tiny pinch of nutmeg to the batter, and sprinkle the finished Welsh cakes with sugar or caster sugar.
You can also buy Welsh cakes at some supermarkets in the UK – both Sainsbury’s and Morrisons stock 6-packs of the superb Tan-y-Castell Welsh cakes, and we regularly found them on sale when living in London.
If you’re planning to travel to Wales, take a look at our 20 Best Castles in North Wales and 35 Best Castles in South Wales articles.
3. Welsh Lamb
For centuries the Welsh ate mutton from the plentiful supply of sheep in their fields and hillsides. However, you’ll seldom find mutton on a Welsh menu nowadays. Younger, more tender lamb has long been in far greater favour.
Welsh lamb is a wonderfully versatile ingredient. Traditional Welsh food favourites include lamb shank, roast lamb with mint sauce, or lamb chops. It is also used in cawl (see below) and is delicious in curries.
The often-damp Welsh climate makes for ideal conditions for sheep breeding, with lush green grass providing pasture all over the country.
ySome areas, including the northern shore of the Gower Peninsula, offer an unusual environment, with sheep able to graze on the sweet grass of the saltmarshes of the Burry Inlet. Welsh saltmarsh lamb is highly prized, with a beautiful, distinctive taste.
Discover the glorious Welsh countryside in our guides to the Rivers in Wales, Lakes in Wales and Landscapes in Wales.
4. Cawl
Cawl – pronounced ‘cowl’, rhyming with ‘towel’- is a hugely popular dish in Wales – indeed it’s a strong contender for the national dish of Wales. It’s a broth or stew which usually features two of the main Welsh food staples, lamb and leek.
Also known as ‘cawl Cymreig’ (Welsh cawl) or ‘cawl mamgu’ (Grandma’s cawl), it is also served with seasonal root vegetables, usually swede, carrot and potato. It’s wonderful garnished with fresh parsley and accompanied by fresh crusty bread.
5. Bara Brith
Bara brith – which translates as ‘speckled bread’ – is one of the best-known Welsh desserts. It’s a Welsh fruit loaf distinguished by some of its ingredients being soaked for hours beforehand in tea. It’s usually served with a pot of tea, with butter spread on one side of each slice.
As with many other traditional Welsh dishes that we describe, recipes vary widely around the country. For the dried fruit, a mixture of raisins, currants and sultanas is ideal.
Bara brith has made a bit of a comeback in recent years, and if you haven’t tried it before, stop by at the first Welsh tearoom you see.
See Also: Things To Do In Betws-y-Coed
6. Welsh Pancakes
Welsh pancakes – crempogau – are a popular Welsh traditional food not too dissimilar from pancakes from around the UK and the Celtic fringe of western Europe.
Crempogau – occasionally called ffroes in parts of South Wales – are distinguished from other pancakes in that a small amount of vinegar is used in the batter. I regularly make pancakes for my son, and he didn’t notice that I had snuck vinegar in when trying the recipe a few months ago.
According to Welsh food traditions around the country, Welsh pancakes are cooked small – with a diameter roughly half a standard frying pan width – and served in a stack, with butter spread on each. We tweak things a little, adding a tiny dusting of sugar and lemon some of the pancakes.
7. Welsh Laverbread
Laverbread – bara lawr – is one of the most highly prized Welsh delicacies. Bread it is not – it is laver seaweed, a thin seaweed found around the Gower beaches and coast near Swansea in South Wales, and further west along the Welsh coast.
The seaweed is a renowned South Wales food, made by boiling it for up to ten hours, and then pureed. It can then be eaten a variety of ways – cold with lamb, or hot with bacon as part of a Welsh breakfast (see below). Around Swansea and the north Gower village of Penclawdd, it is sometimes rolled in oatmeal prior to frying.
Laverbread is rich in nutritional value, with high levels of iron and iodine. The latter gives it a taste a little reminiscent of olives. It is also eaten across the Bristol Channel in North Devon, and as far away as Pembrokeshire and Ireland.
Planning a trip to the Gower Peninsula? Check out our guide to things to do in the Gower here. Or perhaps our detailed guides to Rhossili Bay and Three Cliffs Bay.
8. Welsh Breakfast
A full Welsh breakfast is, in truth, barely different from a full English (as described in our London Food article).
The ingredients are usually the same, with servings of bacon, sausages, fried eggs, baked beans, grilled tomato, mushrooms and fried bread. The Welsh breakfast gets its name because most of the ingredients can be sourced locally.
Around Swansea and the gorgeous Gower Peninsula, local laver bread (seaweed, see entry above) is also added to the meal.
9. Faggots
Welsh faggots are a type of meatball, usually consisting of offal including liver and heart, often wrapped in caul fat (part of a pig’s stomach lining) and served with gravy, mashed potatoes and peas.
The dish may have originated across the border in England, but its popularity has endured more in Wales. I can’t say I’ve ever been a fan.
10. Glamorgan Sausages
This Welsh sausage dish is one of the few meat-free main courses on our list. Known as Selsig Morgannwg in Welsh, they originate in the historic South Wales county of the same name.
Welsh Glamorgan sausage is one of the older Welsh food recipes, dating back 200 years or more. The original Glamorgan cheese used in the recipe is sadly no longer produced, so Caerphilly cheese or Welsh Cheddar is now used instead.
It’s a very simple dish, with a mixture of cheese and leeks (and optional onions and herbs) coated in breadcrumbs and egg and fried. It became popular during World War II when there was a general scarcity of meat, and has remained on the Welsh menu ever since.
11. Anglesey Eggs
I’ve never seen Anglesey eggs (wyau Ynys Mon) served anywhere in Wales, even Anglesey, where I have spent a great deal of time, but I’ve known it from traditional Welsh cookery books since childhood.
It’s a simple, hearty dish, with hard-boiled eggs, mashed potatoes, leeks and cheese (Caerphilly if available), baked in the oven.
Visiting Anglesey? Check out our guides to the best 25 Anglesey Beaches, stunning Llanddwyn Island.
Or perhaps explore some of the seven Lighthouses on Anglesey on one of our great Anglesey walks.
Welsh Food – Famous Welsh Produce
1. Caerphilly Cheese
Caerphilly Cheese is the most famous Welsh cheese, originating in my hometown in South Wales, just a few miles over the mountain from the capital of Wales, Cardiff.
It’s a distinctive mild, crumbly cheese with quite a salty taste. It’s not dissimilar to ricotta in its almost-white appearance, and it’s close to Cheddar in terms of its fairly firm texture.
At school in Caerphilly we were taught that it was made for the coal miners who worked underground in the numerous nearby pits. It was made in local farmhouses, though this had died out by the 1970s and a local pub revived the tradition in the late 1980s.
Most Caerphilly cheese is now produced away from the town. The best I’ve encountered in many years is Gorwydd Caerphilly, made in Tregaron in Mid Wales.
See Also: Caerphilly Castle – One Of The Most Magnificent Castles In Europe and 30 of the Best Day Trips from Cardiff
2. Welsh Cheeses
Caerphilly aside, Welsh cheeses are among the premier Welsh food products.
When living in Wales, we always sought out two Welsh cheese producers in particular. Caws Cenarth, based in West Wales, produce a range of cheeses, including Perl Las, a particular favourite among us blue cheese fiends.
We also love several vintages by the Snowdonia Cheese Company, who produce some astonishingly good mature cheddars.
We should also mention the Blaenafon Cheddar Company, who until very recently matured one of their superb cheeses in a mine shaft at the Big Pit National Coal Museum. Hopefully they’ll be able to use the mine again soon.
3. Welsh Black Beef
Welsh Black beef is another great food of Wales. The Welsh Black cattle breed dates back 2,000 years or more, and in recent times has been bred exclusively for beef. And this is some of the best Welsh beef you’ll find anywhere.
Welsh Black cattle often graze harsher pastures including heathland, but the meat is amazingly tender, and we recommend carnivores among you sample at least one succulent Welsh Black steak when you visit Wales.
4. Welsh Sea Salt – Halen Mon
One of the more curious things to do in Anglesey, the largest of all Welsh islands, is to take a tour at Halen Mon. They harvest sea salt along the Menai Strait – which separates Anglesey from mainland Wales – whose water happens to be particularly pristine.
Anglesey sea salt has become one of the finest and most prestigious Welsh food products – and exports – over the last 20 years or so. It tastes amazing with food in Wales, of course, but it’s used across the world. I was flabbergasted to see it on a table in a restaurant in Sydney, Australia a few ago – it was great to see it get recognition like this.
5. Leeks
The leek is the national vegetable of Wales, and in the past it’s possible it was also the only vegetable you could find in parts of Wales. Known in Welsh as ‘cennin Pedr’, it is also one of the national emblems of Wales, along with the similarly named but completely different daffodil (‘cenhinen Bedr’).
Leeks are used in many Welsh dishes, and taste far better sauteed or fried than if they are boiled. Butter helps bring out and preserve their flavour especially well. We Welsh also tend to use most of the green leaves at the top of the leek – many discard them because of their tougher texture, but they work well in many recipes.
6. Conwy Mussels
Conwy mussels are harvested from the Conwy estuary and Conwy Bay, hand-raked from the seabed where the meatier mussels reside. They are of outstanding quality, the best I’ve tasted in the British Isles.
If you’re staying in the town of Conwy or visiting Conwy Castle (one of the most popular landmarks in Wales) , seek out somewhere that serves them, especially in spring and summer. they can be used in just about any mussel recipe including the classic moules marinieres and moules frites.
New to Wales? Check out our Wales Bucket List or 40 Best Landmarks in Wales.
See Also: Things To Do In Conwy
David Angel
David Angel is a British writer and photographer who has been travelling and photographing Europe for over 25 years. His work is regularly featured in worldwide media including the BBC, the Guardian, the Times and the Sunday Times.
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